HORSE cashgame

I had wanted to do something besides our regular NL holdem cashgame this coming Thursday, and the votes are in. We'll be playing $.50/$1 limit HORSE, ten hands per game. This should be verrrry interesting.

Benchmarks

Nobody really cares, but I wanted to write it down.

I received my $50 on Titan last Thursday. Now, I've got $203 on there. I just logged off after doubling my $40 buy-in on $.25/.50 NL with black aces through QQ. His queens were red, and the flop was black and low. I thought he could've lost less on his hand, but I'm not about to offer advice after I beat somebody with AA vs QQ. Just isn't nice. And besides, it's Titan. These people are seriously awful. Every time I log in, I say, OUT LOUD, "I will not offer advice to these people."

I'm up to $502 on FT, and I'm near $600 on UB. This is very good for a low limit guy like me. Way back in the day, I deposited $300 on UB. That's the only money I've put into online poker, and that makes me feel good.

I've also got $25 on Stars and $3 on bodog. Oh yeah, I'm a baller.

"Rob the jewelry store, and tell em make me a grill."

Three Experiments

In with the "new"... My new online experiment is limit holdem. I'm still working on things, logging some time at $1/2 6max on Full Tilt. In five sessions of about an hour each, I've padded my bankroll on FT by about a Benjamin. The highlight was today when I took down a $29 pot, checkraising two players on the river with the nut boat on a four-diamond board. Check, bet, call, checkraise, fold, call... Ahhhhh.

I know all my limit sessions won't go this nicely, but the money/time ratio definitely merits my continued focus. I'm going to set aside some time for an hour of limit holdem. Some days I don't play online at all, but when I do, I should belly up to a $1/2 (or $2/4 if I keep it up) limit table.

~~~

Coming soon!

I've heard good things about the Omaha/8 games at Hawaiian Gardens, so I'm thinking I'm going to give those a go soon. And hell, it's about time I bought a book about O/8. AlCantHang has suggested Ray Zee's book, and I've got a Barnes & Noble giftcard burning a hole in my pocket.

~~~

The "old" experiment. Back in the day, I used to get plenty of exercise 2-3 times a week. I played soccer on Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings, and usually hit the gym twice a week, often riding my bike there. That hasn't happened in a while. Tuesdays can get rained out, Sundays are tough to make now because I've got to open the restaurant.

So my experiment is to get at least 30 minutes of cardio a day for a month, which started with soccer on Tuesday. One win, one goal, one assist... felt nice. Today was a trip to the exercise room in my apartment complex, for a little jogging while I watched the Lakers-Suns playoff game. More interestingly, I met a new neighbor, a cute red-head. Well, not interesting to me, really.. I'm happy with my girlfriend. But I told my roommate, who is single and had previously groused about there not being any hotties in our apartment complex.

And I think I labelled this the "old" experiment because, while I don't feel it (yet), I am 30 now. I figure some pre-emptive exercise will do me some good.

The gravy train

I'm way behind the times, but I finally got my $50 instant bankroll at Titan, thanks to PSO and yosoyveneno.

HPDrifterOC? That's me.

First day's update: A respectable 7th in the two-table sng. After an early suckout, I was looking at 300 chips with the BB at 30, but I battled back to get a healthy stack. After I ran into AQ in the BB on a steal, it was on to some .5/1 6-max limit.

Do you just call my flop bet with no pair, three to a flush and three to a straight, with T6 in your hand? Why, yes you did. More power to you, sir, and might I add, that was a nice runner runner flush. I never saw it coming.

I'm thinking the two-table sng's are where I need to focus. They only pay top 3, but a few cashes would pad the 'roll considerably. And I'm not fond of the 20% juice on single-table nine player sng's there.

Grr

I decided it was time to jump back into the $17K Guaranteed on Full Tilt. My first attempt was atrocious - so bad, in fact, that I've put it out of my mind. I honestly can't remember why it was awful, but I know it was.

This attempt was better, even though I left with a whimper. I was card dead early, and the nice cards I had were connected to horrible flops. My ray of hope was the maniac three seats on my right. He was putting in overly large preflop raises every third or fourth hand. I resolved to double up through him, but he distinctly gave off the "I don't care if I'm dominated" vibe when he called a huge all-in with KJo. His cards were live (AQ) and his flopped jack held.

Sure enough, he made another late position preflop raise, and I came over the top with ATo. Naturally, this time he's got a hand, AQs. IGHM.

~~~

The good news for the day is that I requested off June 26-30. I'll be heading to Vegas for some satellites to Event #2 of the WSOP, and probably some cashgame fun. The guys in my homegame have Event #2 and #27 in their sights, so some of them might come with me.

Should be interesting.

Finding my place

I've been thinking about what I could possibly bring to the poker blogging world. The short answer is not much. I'm not a good writer, nor a good poker player. You won't see too much useful strategy around here. So, what can I do?

I've hosted an open game at my place since June of '04. I've invited strangers (at the time) into my home, and it's always worked out. It's a very small buy-in game, so there's little chance someone's going to find my game with an eye towards cheating. As I've hosted, I've gained contacts. If you play in my game, chances are good that you'll tell me about other homegames that I might like to play in.

A few months ago, I realized that I was a poker consigliere of central Orange County. Simply put, if you wanted to play in a homegame, you could give me a call, and I'd direct you to Dana Point or Anaheim or USC.

I had the info. I was a gatekeeper.

Don't get me wrong - I don't know every single homegame in the immediate vicinity. But it is kinda neat to have that kind of info at your disposal. Those choices. The golden ticket.

So, I'm going to start a series of entries... my Rounder Report. I'm going to write about my travels around Orange County to various homegames. Cashgames and tournaments - one time shots, and regular affairs.

Perhaps it'll be worth a read even to those not living nearby.

Come one, come all

Three different SoCal bloggers have recently expressed interest in playing in my low-stakes homegame. Cashgame on Thursday, tourney on Sunday, 8pm start times. I'm psyched, but I won't name names until they actually show up.

And if they happen to read this... don't mention "blog"... nobody at my homegame knows I write about myself (and them). My game's listed on pokerpal.org and homepokergames.com/california - that's how most of them found me.

Since Murderer's Row is on hiatus, I thought it would be really cool to host bloggers. Alas, it's a long drive for almost all of them, and if you do very well at my game, you might cover the cost of gas. Still, if you want to play, let me know. This is an open invite.

~~

I dipped a toe into $1/$2 limit 6-max today, and the water's nice and fishy. I sat down with $50, left almost exactly an hour later with $92. But, damn, were those bad players. I'm definitely still learning, and my cards were nice for most of the session, but I feel a lot better about when to check/fold and when to ram and jam. I'll definitely be giving this game another shot.